Brown Ale SMaSH?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The color seems to be difficult to accomplish by sticking 100% to a single base malt. Even though I'm pushing beyond the limit of what is recommended in a batch how about this:

Recipe: Brown Ale SMaSH
Brewer: You?
Style: American Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.02 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 18.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 100.00 %
0.75 oz Cascade [7.20 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 23.3 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [7.20 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Decoction Mash, Single, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Decoction Mash, Single, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
20 min Dough In Add 12.50 qt of water at 108.7 F 104.0 F
40 min Saccharification Decoct 7.81 qt of mash and boil it 158.0 F
15 min Mash Out Decoct 4.92 qt of mash and boil it 175.0 F
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
No reason you couldn't dry roast some base to get a chocolate type malt.

Even steep in water and then roast will give you a malt similar to crystal I believe.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut IMO, when you do this it's not a SMaSH anymore because you're not using a SINGLE malt anymore, once you roast it it becomes a new malt. To me the whole reason of SMaSH is to get a feel for what the single base malt, single hop and single yeast all add to the beer. That's the way I see it anyway.
 
You could always take the first gallon of runnings and hard boil untill it's down to about a pint then sparge like normal for the rest, giving you some nice caramelized sugars. Also I hear that Munich 10L is usable as a base grain, that'd lend you some color, I think I saw someone (Evan! perhaps) going off about a Munich/EKG SMaSH that was awesome.
 
Another question ... Can I just do a single infusion with SMaSH? I see a lot of decoction mashing when talking about this technique.
 
Why bother to keep it a SMaSH if you want it brown ? The point of SMASH is to get an appreciation of what a single Hop tastes like and what a Single Malt tastes like without other malts and hops confusing you. At least thats what I took away from the idea. If you want brown, brew brown. If you want SMaSH, choose a Malt and Hop you want to get to know better and don't worry about the color.
 
Why bother to keep it a SMaSH if you want it brown ? The point of SMASH is to get an appreciation of what a single Hop tastes like and what a Single Malt tastes like without other malts and hops confusing you. At least thats what I took away from the idea. If you want brown, brew brown. If you want SMaSH, choose a Malt and Hop you want to get to know better and don't worry about the color.

I've got munich malt punched into beersmith with an SRM of 18.7. Style guidelines are 18.0-35.0 SRM so I'm not concerned about the color.
 
ya, I'm subscribed to the thread so I'll be notified when Evan! answers the questions that have been asked by other members.

Thanks.
 
Another question ... Can I just do a single infusion with SMaSH? I see a lot of decoction mashing when talking about this technique.

Yes, you can do a single infusion.

You see a lot of talk about decoction because decoction builds a lot of malt flavor and complexity with just base malt without resorting to specialty grains. Some SMaSH brewers find that decocting improves their beers over single infusion.

Bob
 
Back
Top